Good read and nice to see a positive pulse coming from within.
http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=12180740&type=story
http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=12180740&type=story
Spurrier interview with Chris Low of ESPN...link
- Thread starter G-C-Gamecock
- Start date
I think we all love that Spurrier is honest. It's really one of his best qualities. None of the Dabo-type window washing, which is the way it should be.
I'm also concerned about the "re-inventing Carolina football" comment. Seems like year 11 isn't the best time to need re-inventing... just sayin'.
I'm also concerned about the "re-inventing Carolina football" comment. Seems like year 11 isn't the best time to need re-inventing... just sayin'.
After reading the article and listening to the Chris Low interview on the radio, I can't help but think that this isn't going to end well.
This feels like the situation when you have almost talked your grandfather into giving up or scaling back his driving after a couple of recent close calls. He knows that you are right, but it's really hard for him to admit, because driving was his life and love and he's always been good at it. He gets really close to pulling the trigger on giving up wheel-time, because he's not clueless. But then he recoils, decides that he doesn't want to give it up, and tries even harder to convince you that he can still drive like when he was 30, despite what everyone thinks. "I just need to pay more attention. Age is just a number". So the family members then just give up and hope for the best. It's simply stubborn playing out with someone who has earned and who gets your respect. Chris Low gets these interviews because he's like a family member for Spurrier, so take his story angle and his thoughts with a grain of salt.
Tell me anyone who has as much energy and focus and motivation after 70 to do things as well as they used to. This isn't saying that they can't work at an acceptable level, persuade well, manage, or show periods of "see, I can do this" re-invigoration. But in this case, we are talking a football world (particularly on the offensive side) that changes and speeds up every day and that requires increasingly and excessively high energy, quick information processing, mind-power, and stamina and the ability to give this consistently with little to no down time. It also requires leading 20 year olds and playing a physical game, not negotiating with foreign governments. It's probably the best example of a younger man's world. Spurrier's whole get up for the 6 a.m. Friday run just sort of smacks of symbolic desperation.
What Spurrier needs to be doing is simply to recognize this (which I think he does), but instead of trying to set the alarm clock earlier, forget his age, and pretend that it's the good old days, he needs to find an OC who can handle the workload and the increasing speed of the game. He can still be the CEO for as long as he wants, but he has to give up driving the truck. How many times this year did it seem that the HBC was just not processing information and decision-making quickly enough and that the game seemed one step ahead of where he was - eg. 3rd down play calling that he wanted back, two-point conversion opportunities missed, bad time management, delay of game penalties during sideline audibles? And he admits that all of this was indeed on him.
Georgia and Auburn were pretty good days. The play calling made you remember the glory years. Tennessee and Missouri and Kentucky not so much. The problem is that you can't afford more than one bad day in today's playoff environment. And Spurrier seems to now be saying that the solution is that he can take even more control, and just turn on his energy switch, and just get the team to like each other more.
I remember an article at the beginning of the year that was celebrating the fact that Spurrier felt that he could achieve success with much less time and effort from himself and his staff than other programs and coaches put in, like he always had. Where did that go?
So as the HBC often says about planning and preparing for the future and the ultimate results of the effort..."I guess we'll find out".
This feels like the situation when you have almost talked your grandfather into giving up or scaling back his driving after a couple of recent close calls. He knows that you are right, but it's really hard for him to admit, because driving was his life and love and he's always been good at it. He gets really close to pulling the trigger on giving up wheel-time, because he's not clueless. But then he recoils, decides that he doesn't want to give it up, and tries even harder to convince you that he can still drive like when he was 30, despite what everyone thinks. "I just need to pay more attention. Age is just a number". So the family members then just give up and hope for the best. It's simply stubborn playing out with someone who has earned and who gets your respect. Chris Low gets these interviews because he's like a family member for Spurrier, so take his story angle and his thoughts with a grain of salt.
Tell me anyone who has as much energy and focus and motivation after 70 to do things as well as they used to. This isn't saying that they can't work at an acceptable level, persuade well, manage, or show periods of "see, I can do this" re-invigoration. But in this case, we are talking a football world (particularly on the offensive side) that changes and speeds up every day and that requires increasingly and excessively high energy, quick information processing, mind-power, and stamina and the ability to give this consistently with little to no down time. It also requires leading 20 year olds and playing a physical game, not negotiating with foreign governments. It's probably the best example of a younger man's world. Spurrier's whole get up for the 6 a.m. Friday run just sort of smacks of symbolic desperation.
What Spurrier needs to be doing is simply to recognize this (which I think he does), but instead of trying to set the alarm clock earlier, forget his age, and pretend that it's the good old days, he needs to find an OC who can handle the workload and the increasing speed of the game. He can still be the CEO for as long as he wants, but he has to give up driving the truck. How many times this year did it seem that the HBC was just not processing information and decision-making quickly enough and that the game seemed one step ahead of where he was - eg. 3rd down play calling that he wanted back, two-point conversion opportunities missed, bad time management, delay of game penalties during sideline audibles? And he admits that all of this was indeed on him.
Georgia and Auburn were pretty good days. The play calling made you remember the glory years. Tennessee and Missouri and Kentucky not so much. The problem is that you can't afford more than one bad day in today's playoff environment. And Spurrier seems to now be saying that the solution is that he can take even more control, and just turn on his energy switch, and just get the team to like each other more.
I remember an article at the beginning of the year that was celebrating the fact that Spurrier felt that he could achieve success with much less time and effort from himself and his staff than other programs and coaches put in, like he always had. Where did that go?
So as the HBC often says about planning and preparing for the future and the ultimate results of the effort..."I guess we'll find out".
Good points--you can't turn back the time clock. Spurrier is NOT too old to coach and probably has 4-5 more good years
left but he is no longer a 1-man band. He needs to be assisted by better coaches. We need better recruiters(more of them)
and better assistants(I think they are coming after signing day). Dabo is pretty smart in the fact that he is not afraid to hire
assistant coaches(and pay them) who know more about football than he does. He is the BEST cheerleader on the field.
And one of the best recruiters in the game. Spurrier knows he has to bring in better talent even though he has beat the
big 4 (Clemson, Ga, Fla, & Tenn) pretty good the last 5 years. IT WILL BE AWHILE BEFORE WE HAVE TO TAKE THE
KEYS AWAY FROM SPURRIER. 69 is NOT OLD.
left but he is no longer a 1-man band. He needs to be assisted by better coaches. We need better recruiters(more of them)
and better assistants(I think they are coming after signing day). Dabo is pretty smart in the fact that he is not afraid to hire
assistant coaches(and pay them) who know more about football than he does. He is the BEST cheerleader on the field.
And one of the best recruiters in the game. Spurrier knows he has to bring in better talent even though he has beat the
big 4 (Clemson, Ga, Fla, & Tenn) pretty good the last 5 years. IT WILL BE AWHILE BEFORE WE HAVE TO TAKE THE
KEYS AWAY FROM SPURRIER. 69 is NOT OLD.
are you kidding me? We've been told by our betters that to suggest there was a lack of effort, lax coaching and saying he would retire hurt us on the recruiting front made us idiots. Now SOS says the same thing? Go figure.
I agree on hiring an OC but Spurrier will not hire anyone other than his son for this position. And that is not the long term fix.
Well said, but I disagree...sometimes in life it is helpful to get a "kick in the butt"- it can rejuvenate you and remind you of things maybe you had forgotten or taken for granted. I think Spurrier has had that kick in the butt, and he and the team will be better off for it. The assistants as well. Hey, these same guys were heros a couple of years ago- last season was the classic wake up call. A rejuvenated HBC- just what the Dr ordered. Let's go get after it. go cocks- Steve
If we leave guys on the field who don't want to tackle and don't even try to tackle, that's our fault. We did that some, and that's sad. It's not going to happen again.
WOW!!!
That's not good...but from what I saw, it's true.
This post was edited on 1/17 9:31 PM by GCMD2
WOW!!!
That's not good...but from what I saw, it's true.
This post was edited on 1/17 9:31 PM by GCMD2
yeah that's nice. Don't care about any of it though. I'm not interested in this man's personal life. Just hire a new DC already.
This post was edited on 1/18 9:03 AM by ReadR00ster
This post was edited on 1/18 9:03 AM by ReadR00ster
I have accepted where the program is. I'm now waiting anxiously to see who replaces Spurrier someday. I have lost all hope in this team.
Coq au Vandy has a good grasp on reality.
I hear SOS and wish it were impactful; but it obviously is not. I love what SOS has done for us; but the 2-3 year comment has sunk us. Now he has come out with this master plan of a 4-5 year rejuvenation; but he has still put a clock on himself. The problem here is:
1. Opponents will be telling 2016 kids that there is strong likelihood that he will not be there when they graduate.
2. Most opponents are not going to let him get away from the 2-3 year comment by painting him as a cat trying to scratch sand back over the turd he just dropped.
Again,a dream come true it has been for to see HBC prowl our sidelines. But the best thing he could do for this program now is appoint GA Mangus as OC, and announce a retirement at season end during the summer. Allowing us the better part of the year to network outside and evaluate Mangus internally.
We have lost Fields and many others due to this...now we can not seem to recover as Smitherman is going elsewhere. Pellage is dicey at best....Whitlow is TBD....Arnette is wobbly. Next year will only be tougher.
This post was edited on 1/19 6:45 AM by Poultry King
I hear SOS and wish it were impactful; but it obviously is not. I love what SOS has done for us; but the 2-3 year comment has sunk us. Now he has come out with this master plan of a 4-5 year rejuvenation; but he has still put a clock on himself. The problem here is:
1. Opponents will be telling 2016 kids that there is strong likelihood that he will not be there when they graduate.
2. Most opponents are not going to let him get away from the 2-3 year comment by painting him as a cat trying to scratch sand back over the turd he just dropped.
Again,a dream come true it has been for to see HBC prowl our sidelines. But the best thing he could do for this program now is appoint GA Mangus as OC, and announce a retirement at season end during the summer. Allowing us the better part of the year to network outside and evaluate Mangus internally.
We have lost Fields and many others due to this...now we can not seem to recover as Smitherman is going elsewhere. Pellage is dicey at best....Whitlow is TBD....Arnette is wobbly. Next year will only be tougher.
This post was edited on 1/19 6:45 AM by Poultry King
Sounds like some of our posters are transposing their own declining ambition, as they age, onto Steve Spurrier's attitude. It's silly to assume that SOS is running out of gas just because he's 70 years old. That's really not an advanced age today, unless you've sustained severe head trauma or some other serious illness, which is not the case with Spurrier.
If he's not running out of gas, then he should have kept his mouth shut. Recruits care about what he said...it's not a tough concept to grasp.
Mountain out of a molehill there GC. Only 1 recruit, Mark Fields, mentioned that comment as a concern, and he's still considering us. I think the comment scared a few of our fans far more than the recruits, who were actually in contact with our coaches throughout the process, vs. those fans, who were not.
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